Preview: Rumba Cafe and The Summit anniversary weekends

Chris DeVille, Columbus Alive

Wednesday

Aug 31, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 7, 2011 at 1:22 PM

It's celebration time in the Summit Street corridor. Two of the University District's top music destinations are celebrating their anniversaries this weekend with highly characteristic slates of entertainment.

It's celebration time in the Summit Street corridor. Two of the University District's top music destinations are celebrating their anniversaries this weekend with highly characteristic slates of entertainment.

In summer 2006, Summit Street was already a hotbed for Columbus music thanks to Cafe Bourbon Street and Ruby Tuesday. When Todd Dugan and Mark Henderson opened Rumba Cafe later that year, Summit's collection of music-centric bars became arguably the city's richest music district, a reputation that only strengthened when Lou Poster and David Fricke took over Cafe Bourbon Street and converted the bar next door into another rock club called The Summit.

Rumba has lasted five years; The Summit is turning three. To celebrate, both venues are doing what they do best. For Rumba, that ranges from funk and blues-rock to indie folk to freewheeling jazz. For The Summit, it's skuzzy punk and garage rock. Altogether, it adds up to an incomplete but impressive portrait of Columbus music.